Headwinds for the economy, but there's a silver lining

Just 20 years back, the average Indian would have known pretty much nothing about the economic state of the country or the world, and even cared less about it. But the last 10 years have changed that so much that now almost everyone one meets is worrying about the impact of the current economic slowdown on their lives. At the very least, the economy is now racking up the worry quotient in Indian society.
That apart, the economy is a cause of concern. The boom, though most of it powered by the black money flowing into sectors such as real estate, is slowing visibly. The job scene is getting cloudier by the day -- today someone called me from Delhi to say the Times group is planning to fire 1,200 people. Well, even the media scene which showed so much irrational exuberance is getting dark. How will this impact the country and its people?
Of course, not everything is going to be bad. Here are two areas where I think the slowdown is going to be good. Think of the ecology. For the last 10 years we were more interested in exploiting to the hilt what Mother Nature had offered us. Now, the slowing down of the economy would mean the pace of exploitation would slow down too. That is going to be definitely good for the earth and its environment.
Also in the last 10 years our politicians have managed to get away with their corrupt and inept governance of this country as the boom offered jobs and riches to more people than they ever could hope to. Now things are going to change. Once again these effete class of people will come under the scanner; if they don't deliver (and I very much doubt they can), it won't be long our ossified political system could be washed away by the rage of the people.
Will all this lead to a new way of life? I hope it does. If we have to suffer some pain for something that is going to immensely benefit all of us, all living beings, then it would be something worth suffering.

LTTE has sqandered its moral high position

I came back to updating this blog after a long time and was surprised to see a comment posted, with a link. Going there, makes me think all over again about the ethnic problem gripping Sri Lanka in its most gross and gory form.
Children under 10 being conscripted! I have heard this before, but now that I have a kid I can understand the anguish such a prospect brings to hapless, defenceless parents; and also the depths of moral turpitude to which the conscriptor, in this case the LTTE, has fallen.
True, the Sri Lankan problem has many causes and needs to be addressed forthwith, without shedding any more blood. More blood and death does not bring peace. But the LTTE should be striclty told what is acceptable and what is not. It cannot run with the hare and hunt with the wolf.
Any dispassionate observer over the years would clearly see the LTTE not just stands for Tamil freedom; it stands for the LTTE version of the Tamil freedom.
V Prabhakaran had a laudable cause when he started on this path. But along the way he has spilt so much blood and tears and blown up so many bodies, he no longer is fit for that high moral pedestal he once stood on. He has shown himself up to be no more than a blood-thirsty tyrant and the cause of the Tamil people and that of peace itself would be best served by dispossessing him from his current position as chief of the LTTE.
But how much more blood need to be spilt beore we reach that goal? And the real peace process starts only then. And there is the healing process left.
Can the politicians in India and Sri Lanka raise to the challenge?

A Dark Diwali for the Tamils

The spirit is muted this Diwali.
The markets are tanking, the political climate is muddled, there is more ambient violence around the country.
Still, one cannot ignore the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Granted, the LTTE bungled in bumping off Rajiv Gandhi. But that doesn't mean the Tamil people in that country should be punished for the crime of the LTTE. With the Congress-led government in New Delhi happy to turn a blind-eye and with a politically besieged Karunanidhi-led DMK trying to hold on to power, I think the Tamil people have been thrown to the mercy of Rajapakse's Sinhala wolves.
I have not sympathy for extremists, of either the Tamil or Sinhala variety. But even while understanding the Sinhalese's feeling about keeping their country under a single rule, I cannot agree to their letting the Sinhala extremists take on hapless Tamils and hunt them down in the name of political unity.
If India and its current crop of politicians can't engage the Sinhala government in Colombo constructively on this issue, the day may not be far when Tamils in this country will feel antagonistic about New Delhi's political control over them.
And till things take a better turn, who will answer for the innocent Tamil blood that will be spilled?

Shabana Whines, But What About Those Poor Hindus?

So here is Shabana Azmi saying Indian polity has been unfair to the Muslims. Again! This time her grouse is that being a Muslim she could not get a house to buy in Mumbai. And just because of that she thinks Indian Muslims are given unfair treatment. It may be politically incorrect, but I need to say that Muslims in India, or at least some of them, need to get out their "we were the rulers" complex and stop wallowing in self pity.
I am glad the BJP and even some Muslim leaders took her to task for her comments. Some of the latter even said there are Muslim housing societies in Mumbai who don't sell houses to non-Muslims. Why did Ms Azmi not respond to that?! Forget housing societies, there is even a place in Kerala's coast, called Anjuthengu (formerly Anjengo) where Muslims don't let non-Muslims buy houses or property. And they don't have any qualms in doing that even while clamouring for more state-appeasement by citing their minority status!
I think Ms Azmi should be strippe of her Rajya Sabha MP post. Muslim leaders like her can thrive only when the community feels that they are threatened and they keep crying "wolf" for petty political gains.
It is the bane of Indian democracy and secularism that leaders like Shabana Azmi can thrive and at the same time blame the country's political system for creating Muslim terrorists and Hindu terrorists. These wolves in sheep's clothing are the more insidious lot and should be dealt with sternly and in an exemplary manner.

The Passing of the Left Era

On a day when one of the veteral old guard of the Communist Party of India, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, passed away, the CPM also got another jolt - in the form of a hard-hitting statement by Lok Sabha speaker and expelled senior leader Somnath Chatterjee. Well, old leaders die and the CPM has expelled veteral leaders earlier in their history, too. So these are two things that need no special comment. But I am feeling the current mainstream Leftist ideology in the country as represented by the CPM and CPI and some other smaller parties that constitue the Left Front is entering the last lap. The Leftists have long ago become political players more interested in power politics than their constituency - the rural poor. And their hunger for power and machinations to hang on to or get closer to power has create a vacuum, which is now being occupied by the Naxals. If you look at the map of India, you will find the Naxals are almost everywhere. That is because our democratic politics, with all its lofty ideals, has failed to alleviate the suffering of the rural poor. Even in the much-touted Leftist bastion of West Bengal, the poor lead a dog's life. Often it seems as the comrades want to keep the poor confined to their wretched existence for fear of being robbed of their vote bank - in much the same way the Congree wants to keep Muslims as a discriminated community. We can brush the threat of Naxals as being financed by China or as the handiwork of radical Leftist elements, but that would do little in tackling the situation.I am not happy to see the Leftists' influence waning, for whatever faults they had, they still acted as a stabilizing force against the likes of Nehru and Indira Gandhi and now the US agents like Sonia and Manmohan Singh.But I guess that has not been enough. And as the system itself is collapsing, the Left is no exception. Where will all this end? I don't know. I just know that change is inevitable.

Home-grown Terrorists are Still Terrorists

Are Islamist terrorists to blame for the recent serial blasts that have rocked India? Has the community failed to rein in its extremist elements? Should these elements be tackled with a iron hand? These are questions that would have arisen in the mind of any average Indian in recent days. However, the questions that media, especially the so called secular media, in India is debating is whether the terrorists who carried out the crime are home-grown or foreign. As if that really does matter to those killed and their kin!
The sinister logic of skewed secularism that has brought the country to the brink of a religious and ethnic cauldron is at work again. The logic of these apostles of secularism seems to be that such homegrown terrorists are justified because of the perceived injustices to which the Muslim community in India has been subjected to. And therefore, the logic goes, the real culprits are Indian Hindus!
In the first place, I would ask the Muslim community to do some introspection as to why they are still backward in many respects. Many of them still harbour that 'ruler' complex from the Mughal days. And many still harbour illusions of being able to make India a Muslim country. And the community's leaders are only too happy to keep stoking these illusions. Little wonder members of the community cannot mix with the mainstream and feel alienated. But does that justify the kind of violence that has been unleashed on the country in the last week?
Never. But then we have the media and the pseudo-secularists who are out to fish in troubled waters. With their eyes set firmly on short-term political and financial gains these people are out to spread the image of the 'injured Indian Muslim', whatever that would do to the country's security.
It is time to show these misguided jehadis - whether homegrown or foreign - as what they are - heartless and cruel killers, and that their actions are in no way justified. The sooner we do that the better, or we could have another Gujarat on our hands soon.

Time to tell our leaders: Act now or get out!

The terror seems not yet over - not even a temporary respite is in sight. Today police defused around 15 live bombs in Surat. Yes, the killers are at large and audacious enough to go around and plant some dozen more bombs in public places. This is something India has never seen before. Earlier, there was at least a few months' lull after a serial bomb blast before the killers struck again.
What we see here is a total failure of the police and intelligence machinery. Not only have they been able to nab the terrorists, they have not even been able to bring enough pressure on them to make them lie low. It just shows all their claims of arresting the perpatrators of all those earlier terror strikes was pure gas.
The Union government is blaming state police and states are blaming the Centre. In all this din what is forgotten is our police and intelligence machinery have failed completely, and have left the Indian society helpless victims of terror. Are we paying taxes just for our politicians to move around in armoured vehicles with commando escort and for our police officers to pick up and harass law-abiding common citizens whose only crime is that they lack political connections?
We have been abandoned by our rulers and our police, the very people whom we pay to help keep this a law-abiding and secure society.
It is time to tell these busybodies to go nab the terrorists or up and leave. Indian people can and will manage such threats. But we do not need such parasites eating our money and not being able to capture a bunch of terrorists who have killed over a hundred people and are still terrorising us.
Stop the politicking, stop the religious appeasement. Act now, or get out!

No Future Left For Left After Congress 'Betrayal'!

The Left is now crying foul.What a bright idea! For four years you misused the mandate extended to you by people from Kerala and West Bengal to support a Congress-led government at the Centre. And you did that by holding strikes almost every week in those states, derailing the life of the common people. And now the Congress having outsmarted you, you cry foul!
I wonder if Karat and co have any moral authority left to point fingers at the Congress. You had four years to keep this government under control and you did nothing. All you did was make life hell for the very same people who elected you.
Compare that with what a regional politician like Karunanidhi did. He could manage to make the UPA government change its policies in his favor even though he did not have the same number of MPs in the Lok Sabha as the Left parties combine did.
If the Left had pulled the rug from under the government the last time it kicked up a furore over the 123 nuclear deal with the US, they would still have had some credibility left. Now all they can do is bawl over the 'betrayal' of the Congress.
I am sure if the country goes to the polls today the Left will end up with less than one third of the number of seats in Parliament as it does now. That is because the misrule in its two main bastions - Kerala and West Bengal - has reached it peak. People in those two states may not care about the nuclear deal, but they do care about how governance has suffered as the party mandarins go about their own agendas.
So keep crying, Mr Karat and co. No one has any sympathy left for you. You were given a chance to help save the country from the American stooges in the Congress and you bungled. Period.

Unilever Stinks! Now, Get Out Of Asia

Unilever needs to make money, but that doesn't mean it can get away with doing anything for that. A senior executive at the company has alluded - in fact stated it unequivocally - in an interview that Asians stink. It is easy dismiss this as just politically incorrect talk with the aim of creating a market for the company's deo products. However, beneath this inocuous characterisation lies the fact that the statement is more about the arrogance of a white colonialist (or in this case a developed-world imperialist) about all things and people he deems as lesser mortals, who are only good and useful for the money they have to buy his cheap deodarants.
How shameful that such a statement has escaped the attention of most poeple in this continent. Asia is once place where a lot of religions and empires were born, the cultural and spiritual cradle of the world. And here is this imperious white-skinned business executive who thinks the people of this continent is no good without his cheap mix of ethanol and some smelly chemicals.
It wold do well for Russel Taylor, Unilever’s global V-P for Axe deodorants, to remember that Asians were the most advanced people in the world, and the best in personal hygiene, when his ancestors did not even care to wash, let alone brush their teeth.
There should be a mass boycott of all Unilever products by Asians till this haughty neo-imperialist is forced to apologise for his intemperity.

A Case For Limiting Media Freedom?

The media scene in the country is full of fizz now, what with new newspapers, channels and magazines either hitting the market every day, or slated to hit the market soon. Well, for once I hope this will put an end to the dominance of the few traditional media players who knew how to play politics with their media clout to get what they wanted from our political leaders.
If professionalim is ushered into the media by this boom, I am only too happy about it. And from the frenzy that some of the traditional players are working themselves up into, I guess they are very much threatened.
The sad part may be that all this new media may not mean much for our democracy. The freedom of the press enshrined in our Constitution is there so the media can help keep a check on those in power. However, our media players invoke that right only to dish out the sleazy and seamy side of human life. They have consistently forgotten their political duties, while clamouring for their constitutional rights. And I don't doubt the new players will be much different either.
Media is a business and every player here thinks of it as a business. That brings us to the question: do we still need that clause about media freedom? It would be draconian to just delete it from the Constitution, but it would be equally diabolic to let these profit-focused media houses enjoy that freedom - and use it - only for making money, while giving the go by to their primary duty as conscience keepers to the nation.
Is there a way out? There could be and we need to find one. Media houses worried only about making money should not enjoy the benefits any other business does not enjoy - whatever guise they may give it to cling to it.

The BJP Has Won, But...

The BJP has stormed the South Poll, say the newspapers. Well, I am wondering if that will help the party in the 2009 general elections. Because there is many a slip between the cup and the lip, and there is still a few months left before the votes are cast. How will the party deal with the Gujjar violence, and how will the other parties exploit it in the cow belt, and how the issue will pan out, along with many other already live and yet-to-be-live issues - all these make it too premature to say if the Karnataka victory will be a precursor to such a victory at the Centre.
The fact is, whoever comes to power, it isn't going to change the lot of the poor millions or the state of the environment much. Apart from paying lip service to these causes, our politicians aren't going to do anything concrete about these.
Things are going to get worse, the gap between the rich and the poor is going to get wider, the environment will be ravaged even more by greedy businesses, and communal and casteist differences will be exploited with elan. It seems there was never a better time to be a politician in India!

The Pied Pipers Of India

Where is this nation heading? Every one and his community now wants to be on some privileged list. Yes, I am referring to the Gujjars clamouring for Scheduled Tribe status. While I don't know the merits of the demand and I am not going to comment on it, I am worried about where this state of affairs will lead to.
This is more like the proportional representation on the basis of religion that the British once held out to Indians and was rejected by Gandhi. But today's Congress and other parties are clamouring for, in essence, the same thing.
Women's quotas, SC/ST quotas, Muslim and Christian quotas, OBC quotas... we are heading for quota raj. It would be politically incorrect to criticise this competitive votebank politics, but I am pained for the nation.
These corrupt, greedy, and shortsighted politicians are presiding over the dismemberment of this once-great nation called Bharat. Hell, even that is politically incorrect now - India is more correct!
Our politicians, intellectuals and idealogues have taken up western notions of political correctness. And without an educational system that can show us our real greatness we are just following those peddlers of misery, like the children following the Pied Piper.

A Welcome Move, But ...

The Muslim clergy in the country, reports say, are now mobilizing against terrorists from the
community. It is a welcome change, considering the Deoband school which is considered to provide the ideological underpinning to the extremist Wahabi brand of Islam, is at the forefront of the new movement. But then, there are other clergymen opposing them. Their argument: terrorism is not something which only the Muslims should be ashamed about. True, but those intellectuals who parrot the arguments of these clergy forget that all these new-fangled arguments are just a way to cover the extremist intentions of some Muslims at least. Leftist intellectuals have already bought into those arguments, and allowed Islamic extremism some amount of respect, in a trade off for votes.What is disturbing this time around, is the extremists and their intellectual backers are back at a time when there is a serious introspection within the community. Remember, these are the same people who opposed some films saying they were against Islam, when in truth they wanted to suppress a film showing a Muslim girl falling in love and marrying a Hindu boy. If it would have been the other way round, they wouldn't have minded. So much for their secularism! It is time we called the bluff of these wolves in sheep's clothing.

I have nothing against the Muslim community; many of my friends are from the community. What I am against is the competitive appeasement politics that is allowing these preachers of
violence to thrive under a garb of secular respectability.The earlier such idiots are put behind the bars, their intellectual backers exposed, and the moderates in the community given a chance to reasser themselves, the better for humanity and India!

Back to the podium!

I am back to updating this blog. Sorry for the interruption.
Plenty of interesting things have happened from the time I made my last post. But it would be impossible for me to start from where I ended. Forward H!
The comrades are back to their favorite game at the Center, threatening to pull down the government if the nuke deal is signed with the US and at the same time saying there is no threat to the government.
They are also facing a roiled polity in the two main states in which they wield power - Kerala and West Bengal.
Funny thing is they haven't learnt anything all these years!
If elections are called today, I am sure the Leftists will lose power everywhere. They are trying hard to make their relevance felt with talks about a Third Front but all that is bull shit that is going to go nowhere. Let us face it comrades: the UPA has only benefitted the Congress!